The Captain

Captain Daniel Moreland

Captain Daniel Moreland is one of the most respected sailing ship masters at sea today. An internationally recognized authority on square-rig and traditional sailing ships, he started his career sailing in the West Indies in island schooners, brigantines, and passenger windjammers.

He sailed around the world the first time in 1974–76 on the Brigantine Romance, under Captain Arthur Kimberly. In 1980, he signed on the famous Danish state full-rigged schoolship Danmark and served for four years training young officer cadets for the Danish merchant marine. His interest in learning, studying and teaching the value of traditional sail led him to head up the restoration of one of the last nineteenth-century Grand Banks fishing schooners, the Ernestina. For this he received the prestigious Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987.

In 1999, following the Picton Castle's return from its first circumnavigation, Captain Moreland received the American Sail Training Association's "Sail Trainer of the Year" award.

Captain Moreland has since completed four additional circumnavigations (2000–2002, 2003–2004, 2005-2006, 2010-2011) in the Picton Castle, along with many shorter voyages, and a year-long voyage around the Atlantic basin. In 2011, after the completion of his fifth circumnavigation in command of Picton Castle, he was recognized worldwide, being awarded "Sail Trainer of the Year" by Sail Training International.

On Saturday January 30, 2016 in Quebec City at the joint conference of Sail Training International and Tall Ships America, Captain Moreland was presented with the STI Lifetime Achievement Award, given to an individual who has dedicated his or her life's work to getting people to sea under sail and who has worked to preserve the traditions and skills of sail training.

Captain Moreland holds the rarest license issued to Merchant Marine officers today: Master of Steam, Motor, or Auxiliary Sail, Vessels of Any Gross Tons upon Oceans. With 30 years at sea as master or mate of topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs, and barques making numerous transatlantic voyages and five circumnavigations, few are so well qualified to lead a voyage and train apprentice sailors.

Barque Picton Castle

The Barque Picton Castle is a three-masted tall ship based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada but best known for our adventurous sail training voyages around the world. Anyone can become a trainee crew member, no experience required, just a desire to become part of the crew that sails the ship. With the guidance of our professional crew, you'll literally learn the ropes. Join us as a trainee crew member on our seventh world circumnavigation voyage beginning in April 2018, applications are being accepted now. Sign on for the full voyage or for just a leg of the voyage!

Latest Captain's Log

The day came in surprisingly clear. Mists hung over the jungles either
side of the Picton Castle, weaving in among the trees like living
things. The lapping of tiny waves along the waterline is about the
only sound br...

May 23, 2018

News

"A circumnavigation is the stuff of dreams, the ultimate sailing challenge. Few pull it off. Making one’s way around as part of a crew under square rig is even more of a storybook adventure — and thanks to the double-topsail barque Picton Castle and her visionary skipper, Capt. Daniel Moreland, hundreds of people have lived that dream."